The new Procurement Act 2023 is reshaping public sector contracting in the UK, and suppliers now have a tremendous opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. This legislation brings sweeping changes—from enhanced transparency to streamlined procurement processes—that, when leveraged correctly, can dramatically increase your win rate. 

Key Changes and Their Competitive Opportunities  

The Procurement Act 2023 introduces several game-changing modifications that fundamentally alter the bidding landscape: 

Enhanced Transparency & Competitive Intelligence 

  • New transparency notices provide access to real-time procurement data, competitor performance insights, and historical contract trends. 
  • Suppliers can leverage Competitive Intelligence (CI) to benchmark pricing, track competitor strategies, and identify key procurement trends, ensuring more informed decision-making. 

Stronger Focus on Social Value and Innovation 

  • Public sector buyers now prioritise innovation, sustainability, and social impact alongside cost. 
  • PTW methodology ensures that your bid effectively balances cost and non-price scoring, helping you win Value for Money (VFM) evaluations. 

Streamlined Procurement & Level Playing Field 

  • The simplified bidding process and supplier protections make it easier for new entrants to compete. 
  • With PTW-driven pricing strategies, you can ensure your bid is highly competitive without unnecessary cost-cutting risks. 

Stricter Compliance & Performance Accountability 

  • Performance tracking and a centralised debarment register make pricing, compliance, and past performance more critical than ever. 
  • PTW ensures optimal pricing based on real-world award trends rather than guesswork. 

Each change allows suppliers to refine bid strategies, harvest competitive data, and tailor proposals to evolving buyer expectations. 

What is Position to Win (PTW)? 

PTW is a data-driven methodology that estimates your bid to win based on the customer’s selection criteria. It encompasses: 

✅ Price-to-Win Goal: Determining the ideal bid price range based on market intelligence, solution options, specific competitor behavior and historical award trends. 
✅ Non-Price Goal: Aligning bid strategy with technical, social value, and innovation criteria to optimise scoring. 
✅ Competitor Analysis: Identifying competitor strengths, weaknesses, and pricing strategies to gain an advantage in evaluation scoring. 

Leveraging Enhanced Competitive Intelligence

The new Act mandates greater disclosure of procurement information, allowing suppliers to perform deep competitive analysis. Enable Strategic Consulting has developed best-in-class methodologies for: 

Harvesting Data for Competitive Advantage 

✔ Advanced data extraction tools to uncover market intelligence from government portals and procurement platforms. 
✔ Identifying trends in competitor strategies and real-time shifts in procurement behaviours. 

Turning Data into Actionable Insights 

✔ Benchmark pricing, assess historical win rates and pinpoint areas where competitors fall short. 
✔ Embed “ghosting” strategies—highlighting competitor weaknesses to differentiate your bid effectively. 

Enable’s expertise in CI ensures that your bidding process is underpinned by data-driven insights, enhancing your overall win strategy. 

Enhancing Stakeholder Management 

Effective stakeholder management is now more critical than ever. Enable Strategic Consulting advocates for: 

Comprehensive Stakeholder Mapping 

  • Using psychometric profiling and advanced analytics, we help you identify and engage with key decision-makers early in the process. 

Proactive Engagement Strategies 

  • Access to enriched contact data from procurement portals allows for ongoing, targeted buyer engagement. 
  • Regular interaction ensures suppliers remain aligned with evolving buyer expectations. 

Aligning with Buyer Needs 

  • Understanding the nuances of stakeholder priorities helps craft more tailored, persuasive bids. 

By leveraging a proactive approach to stakeholder management, you position your organisation as a responsive, informed supplier—fostering stronger relationships and increasing your probability of success. 

Win Strategy & Black Hat: Outmaneuver the Competition 

Well-facilitated Win Strategy and Black Hat sessions are indispensable to stay ahead in a highly competitive environment. 

Objective Evaluation 

  • Simulate competitor tactics and challenge internal assumptions to identify potential weaknesses in your bid. 
  • Challenge cognitive bias in your win strategy that might mean you miss a competitor’s approach.

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

  • Ensuring that sales, technical, and management teams work together seamlessly, aligning on a unified strategy that enhances bid quality. 

Innovative Problem-Solving 

  • Leveraging diverse perspectives to generate creative, disruptive solutions that provide a clear competitive edge. 

Enable’s expert-facilitated Black Hat sessions have helped numerous clients refine their approaches, improving win rates significantly. 

Making Position to Win Your Competitive Advantage

A rigorous PTW strategy is the cornerstone of success under the new Procurement Act. Enable Strategic Consulting’s approach involves: 

Defining Your Unique Value Proposition 

  • Clearly articulate what sets you apart—from innovative solutions and social value contributions to operational excellence—to ensure your bid resonates with buyer needs. 

Aligning Internal Teams 

  • Driving cohesive, cross-functional collaboration that unites your organisation around common strategic objectives and performance benchmarks. 

Continuous Improvement & Bid Refinement 

  • Using feedback from win strategy sessions and CI analysis to iteratively refine proposals iteratively, ensuring your approach remains agile and responsive to market changes. 

Why is PTW essential under the Procurement Act? 

  • Helps you bid only when you can win, saving time and resources. 
  • Identifies competitors’ pricing strategies, allowing for a more competitive and compelling bid.  
  • Ensures your value proposition aligns with buyer priorities, particularly under new social value criteria. 
  • Prevents underpricing or overpricing, ensuring your bid maximises Value for Money (VFM) evaluations. 

By embedding PTW into your bid process, Enable Strategic Consulting ensures strategic pricing, competitive differentiation, and stakeholder alignment—leading to a significantly higher win rate. 

Enable consistently helps clients secure high-stakes contracts by implementing this comprehensive PTW strategy, building a sustainable competitive advantage. 

Enable: The Leader in Public Sector Procurement Strategies 

Enable Strategic Consulting stands out as a leading thinker in this space. With decades of combined experience in capture, bidding, and competitive intelligence. 

Our Integrated Approach Covers Every Facet of the Bid Lifecycle 

  • Win Strategy & Competitive Intelligence: Combining data-driven insights with innovative thinking to craft winning proposals. 
  • Black Hat & Win Strategy Sessions: Expertly facilitated sessions to ensure your team stays ahead of the competition. 
  • PTW & Bid Team Performance: Optimising pricing and non-price elements to drive superior bid outcomes. 

Enable’s proven methodologies and advanced tools empower you to navigate the complexities of the new procurement landscape—turning challenges into opportunities for growth. 

The UK Procurement Act 2023 presents a game-changing opportunity for suppliers ready to adopt a data-driven, competitive strategy. 

By leveraging:

✅ Enhanced Competitive Intelligence (CI) 
✅ Proactive Stakeholder Management 
✅ Regular Black Hat & Win Strategy Sessions 
✅ A Robust Position-to-Win (PTW) Strategy 

You can dramatically boost your win rate and secure public sector contracts. 

Partner with Enable Strategic Consulting today to transform your procurement strategy. 

Get in touch now to gain a competitive advantage. 

Author: Alex Porteous